Saturday Lecture Series w/ “Trenton Makes” Author Tadzio Koelb

Roebling Museum’s Saturday Lecture Series returns in with a very special discussion and book signing event on New Jersey Makers Day!

Intrigue, secrets, and industry collide in a new piece of fiction written against the backdrop of the place in New Jersey where the popular slogan, “Trenton makes, the world takes,” was born. Meet the author, Tadzio Koelb. Hear about his research for the book, and take part in what is sure to be a lively discussion, followed by a book signing.

The discussion with Koelb will be moderated by Jon Michaud, a writer and librarian. His novel, “When Tito Loved Clara” was published by Algonquin in 2011. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The Washington Post. Jon lives in Maplewood, N.J. and is currently writing a nonfiction book about the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

Visitors who attend the lecture can also participate in New Jersey Makers Day, a statewide celebration of making and maker culture that takes place every March in the Garden State. Makers Day activities are included with the lecture admission price.

About the novel, “Trenton Makes” From the Penguin Random House website:
“In 1946, in the hardscrabble industrial city of Trenton, New Jersey, a woman kills her army veteran husband in a domestic brawl—and then assumes his identity. As Abe Kunstler, he secures a factory job, buys a car, and successfully woos a young woman with whom he makes a home. But for Abe, this is not enough: to complete his transformation, he needs a son. Fast-forward to 1971, and the certainties of midcentury triumphalism are a distant, bitter memory, Trenton’s heyday as a factory town is long past, and the family life Abe has so carefully constructed is crumbling under the intolerable pressures of his long ruse. Written in brilliantly stylized prose, Trenton Makes is the indelibly told story of a woman determined to carve out her share of the American Dream.”

About the Author:
Tadzio Koelb is a novelist, translator, painter, and essayist. Koelb has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, Caldera Arts, and I-Park, and for three years was an artist-in-residence at the Maison d’Art Actuel des Chartreux in Brussels, Belgium. He regularly reviews fiction, non-fiction, and art for a number of publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The New York Times and The Times Literary Supplement. His short critical biography of Lawrence Durrell appeared in Scribner’s Sons’ British Writers series, and Morasses, his translation of André Gide’s Paludes, was published in 2015. Koelb, who has lived in Belgium, France, Spain, Uzbekistan, Madagascar, Rwanda, and Tunisia, now lives in New York and teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and the New School.